... I hope I don't sound bitchy, I would just think that since knitting is such a big thing these days, why not learn? It's not that difficult. ... ???

Many of us are multitaskers. Perhaps crafters in particular are good at it, I don't know (cf. the recent thread about attempting to knit and read simultaneously).

Whatever one's opinion is about Martha Stewart (personally I think it would be exhausting to spend 5 minutes with her), I think it is adequately established that she is super busy (tv, radio, magazines, books, DVDs, home products, craft products ...). I doubt I could do a third of what she does in a month and also eat and sleep let alone take time to learn a new skill like knitting, difficult or not.

You don't have to be Martha Stewart to be too busy to learn a new craft. Thinking back to when I was working full time & in school part time enjoying a few hours of an already practiced craft on a weekend could be very relaxing, meditative even, but attempting to learn something new might have pushed me over the edge

Everyone has a different situation, different demands on their time, and as someone has already mentioned, different limits to their manual dexterity -- it seems very odd to me to criticize anyone, especially anyone who directly or indirectly furthers my enjoying something I love to do, for choosing to do something other than what I do with my spare time.

I think your choice of words in the original post seemed to imply that only knitting mattered, so maybe it's just semantics. Maybe you were just unaware of the crafts some of these celebrities do work with.

Yes, there's a big market for those lesser yarns, and some of us prefer them for other qualities.

I didn't mean that as a criticism of acrylic, probably 90% of what I use is acrylic. I am particularly sensitive to color though and it seems that when I browse through the yarn aisles of craft stores I see yarn that meets my budget, feels nice, but are either strange colors or color combinations, or else in very limited palette (I admit that several times I have decided *not* to knit or crochet something for a baby because all I could find in baby yarn weight was saccharine pastels and no kid-friendly bright colors at all).

I didn't mean that as a criticism of acrylic, probably 90% of what I use is acrylic. I am particularly sensitive to color though and it seems that when I browse through the yarn aisles of craft stores I see yarn that meets my budget, feels nice, but are either strange colors or color combinations, or else in very limited palette (I admit that several times I have decided *not* to knit or crochet something for a baby because all I could find in baby yarn weight was saccharine pastels and no kid-friendly bright colors at all).

You're right the choice of colors is often limited, but they do have a lot more choices with most yarns online. Possibly that defeats the purpose of supporting the store, but if you want a special color do check online.

__________________
Jan

When asking questions ALWAYS post the name and a link for the pattern if you have it.

I didn't mean that as a criticism of acrylic, probably 90% of what I use is acrylic. I am particularly sensitive to color though and it seems that when I browse through the yarn aisles of craft stores I see yarn that meets my budget, feels nice, but are either strange colors or color combinations, or else in very limited palette (I admit that several times I have decided *not* to knit or crochet something for a baby because all I could find in baby yarn weight was saccharine pastels and no kid-friendly bright colors at all).

Two responses here: one is that the dyeing methods for natural fibers vs. those for synthetics use different dyestuffs (usually) and different mordants (almost always). A lot of natural-fiber yarns are being dyed with natural rather than synthetic dyestuffs right now, too, which often produces more gently colored yarns than otherwise. (And, of course, baby yarns are traditionally pastel; I've always considered myself lucky to find yellow or green!)

My second is to suggest that, if you can use sport-weight and are looking for brightly colored acrylic, you take a look at Knitpicks' "Brava" yarn. It's available in sport, worsted, and bulky weight, but I thought the sport weight would be closest to baby yarn.

My second is to suggest that, if you can use sport-weight and are looking for brightly colored acrylic, you take a look at Knitpicks' "Brava" yarn. It's available in sport, worsted, and bulky weight, but I thought the sport weight would be closest to baby yarn.
DCM

I just saw the Brava acrylic in a knitpicks newsletter thingy! I am deliberately not going to that site because of it since I know that whatever I decide to get there I will probably end up with twice what I intended in my shopping cart by checkout so I can get more colors. So I'm waiting until my yarn budget is sufficient, but you are right, it looks great.

I know pastels are "traditional" but I guess I'm not.
I can't work with those colors for very long (when I do use soft colors I tend to use dark ones stranded with them to contrast, which makes it more interesting for me at least). Also I remember when I was a toddler (eons ago for sure) I had lots of bright and primary color clothes, bedding, toys, etc. and wonder what happened to those days. It sort of reminds me of the old Lego ad image that has gone viral in the past few weeks "what it is, is beautiful" -- not a pastel in sight.

I know pastels are "traditional" but I guess I'm not.
I can't work with those colors for very long (when I do use soft colors I tend to use dark ones stranded with them to contrast, which makes it more interesting for me at least). Also I remember when I was a toddler (eons ago for sure) I had lots of bright and primary color clothes, bedding, toys, etc. and wonder what happened to those days.

I guess I'm not very traditional either because I prefer to use all the pastel colors in baby blankets for both boys and girls. And several years ago Caron had some neon bright yarns (called Brights, I believe) that I used several times in some baby blankets. The mothers who got these blankets LOVED them (I'm not sure what the babies thought of them, though). I still have some left over for more blankets, too!

It looks like Caron no longer sells those neon bright yarns; however, they still have plenty of dark, vibrant colors. The great thing about their medium weight (#4) yarn is that it is very close to sport weight in other yarns, so you can use it for baby blankets (plus, it washes easily).